"Are you going up or down?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you going up there?" *points up* "Or down there?" *points down*
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about J the son of G."

Do you find yourself being cryptic when sharing your faith? I know I do, or I find myself avoiding or denying my faith because I fear the negative things people might say. Today at Cedarbrook Community Church pastor Ken Jackson talked about sharing your faith and how to overcome the fear you might have in sharing your faith.

2 Kings 7:3-11: ³ Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? ⁴ If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

⁵ At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, ⁶ for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” ⁷ So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

⁸ The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

⁹ Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

¹⁰ So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” ¹¹ The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

There are three lessons that these four lepers teach us.

1. Take a risk. When it comes to sharing your faith one must take a risk like the lepers did. They had no idea what lay ahead of them when they decided to leave the city and surrender to the Arameans. They looked at all their options and the best case scenario was to go to the enemy camp and risk the chance on the enemy having mercy on them and help them. The worst case scenario for them is that they die, which would happen if they stayed in the city. What is the worst case scenario if you tell a friend about your faith? You might be told that they are not interested, you might be made fun or labeled, but none of these things are that bad. Take the risk to reach out and speak up.

2. The lepers delighted in the grace that they received; they didn't take what they found for granted. Because of Christ we are forgiven of all our sins-- past, present, and future. We celebrate this through our singing. But how else can we celebrate? By reflecting on our grace and worshiping God regularly. Live in awareness. Live in the enjoyment of grace. Celebrating the grace God has given us makes it easier to share your faith with friends.

3. The lepers remembered others who needed grace, not out of guilt or religious responsibility but because they did not forget themselves and had compassion and cared about the people in the city. Do you care enough to share with others?

You can listen to this message at http://cedarbrook.org/podcast.php?pageID=34 . I downloaded all the available podcasts to listen to this week at work. Also if you have an Android phone I highly recommend the Bible app from LifeChurch.tv Just search Bible in the Android market. It has really nifty features such as "plans" that help you study the Bible, as well as numerous versions of the Bible and a notes feature. I currently have two plans I'm using: Life Application Study Devotion, and Why Read the Bible?

This past Sunday I visited Covenant Life Church. It was a huge church! I'm not sure if I feel comfortable there, but I did like the message. We read from Matthew 6:25- 34:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

In a nutshell, have complete faith in God for He will provide. The pastor taught on how seeking God and His kingdom helps you build faith, which makes sense: the more you learn, the more you grow, and the more you trust. Hebrews 11:1 says that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." I reiterate seeking God (learning) gives you that certainty that you need to have faith. And you must seek God all the time, which is so easy to not do. This blog helps me seek God as it provides me with the ability to get different perspectives on how to learn from the Bible, and when people ask questions before I answer with what I know I refer to the Bible because it explains the "why and how" behind my answer. For example, yesterday I answered a question that asked "Who killed Christ?" The answer in my head was we did, but to be honest with you I didn't really understand how we did. I read both Matthew and Mark and found out that the people of Judea chose to have Jesus crucified and in fact said "His blood with be on us and on our children." (Matthew 27:25) This also explains how Jesus' death saves us. By the people saying that the blood of Jesus is on their hands and their childrens' was them choosing for themselves and all of their descendant's to take on the responsibility for crucifying Jesus. Jesus in turns asks God to forgive them (in Luke 23:34) and since we were spoken for that forgiveness passes onto us. Get it? I'm pretty bad at explaining this.